Rain and Samantha's Excellent Adventure: Rainie Falls on the Wild and Scenic Rogue

Samantha: Hey folks, here's a little more of what we did while hanging out in Grants Pass. One day early in the week, we took a stroll downtown, and stopped in an artisan organic coffee shop on G street. This place was nice, local art all over the walls, and the young folk working there were very friendly, and once they learned of our excursion westward, they offered up some cool places to hike in the area. One suggestion was Rainie Falls along the Rogue river, about half an hour south of GP. We took their advice and left town for a nice hike. It was about 4 miles round trip, very easy going parallel to the Wild and Scenic Rogue (the Rogue is one of eight rivers originally protected by the Wild and Scenic Act of 1968. The act prohibits development along the shores of any designated river - a great idea!) Here's a link for basic trail info: http://web.thedailycourier.com/zachsadventures/hikes/hikes.html?i=29
We got there in the afternoon. The drive out alone was beautiful, and we were able to see into the Hellgate Canyon from above on the way back. The falls were short, but wide, and the water was very deep. The Rogue river is notorious for swallowing unwary swimmers - we were told by a few people that the death toll was already at 7 this year. That aside, it's also renowned for its salmon fishing. As I mentioned in our previous post, it is Chinook season. Rain and I reached the falls and as we scouted the area for a nice place to settled down for our late lunch, two young gents walked by toting three 20 lb salmon, strung along a freshly felled sapling, and a variety of fishing gear. They stopped obligingly so I could take their picture (those fish were heavy!) and then continued their 2 mile trip to the top of the valley. That fish looked delicious!! I wished I'd had the means to catch me some. We dined on sandwiches Rain had thoughtfully prepared, and admired the falls and all the activity - more fishers, paddlers, splashers, other hikers, and some Steller's Jays.
The sun began to recede, we snapped some more photos, and began our ascent. A sweet little afternoon.
Here's what it looked like: